{"id":7835,"date":"2016-05-06T19:51:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T23:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=7835"},"modified":"2017-04-20T11:50:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T15:50:01","slug":"big-brown-jug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=7835","title":{"rendered":"Big brown jug"},"content":{"rendered":"

My sisters and I long ago stopped buying each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas. I think we all hate the process of shopping for presents because, when you live far apart, it’s a guessing game\u00a0with too\u00a0many wrong answers.<\/span><\/p>\n

There’s one gift that my sisters will accept any time of the year, though. It’s always the right color: brown. And size doesn’t matter, except the bigger the better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s my homemade tincture of Lobelia inflata<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

One sister suffers from fibromyalgia and tremors, another from chronic back and foot pain. I blend custom\u00a0teas for them that are calming to the nerves and anti-inflammatory. I give them nervine tinctures to help them sleep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their most-requested remedy, though, is the\u00a0lobelia tincture. It is a powerful anti-spasmodic<\/a>, and when they dab\u00a0it on their sore joints and muscles, it gives instant relief.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’d shower in it if I could,” said Maggie.<\/p>\n

“Can you brew me a gallon of this stuff?” Chris asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So now I do exactly that – brew a gallon of lobelia tincture at a time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_6077\"<\/p>\n

The various species of lovely Lobelia are common in the Southern Appalachians. The medicinal species, L. inflata<\/em>, is a weed found in many yards and fields. I harvest it right from our yard in Booger Hollow.<\/p>\n

That supply isn’t nearly enough to cover the needs of my sisters, so I buy it in bulk online. Commercial shops only sell the lobelia leaves, though – and the highest concentration of medicinal chemicals is in the seed pods. So I collect the pods and add them to the bulk leaves.<\/p>\n

The pods are what make Lobelia inflata<\/em> easy to identify. They look like little balloons (hence the name inflata<\/em>):<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6078\"<\/p>\n

Lobelia has many other medicinal properties<\/a>. It can be used to help nicotine withdrawal, and is used to treat asthma and respiratory congestion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The tincture I make is based on a traditional recipe. I use up to one-third grain alcohol mixed with water, and the rest\u00a0raw apple cider vinegar. I cover the lobelia with the liquid in mason jar, and shake it every day for a month, then strain.<\/span><\/p>\n

This fully extracts the medicinal chemicals in the plant. While most tinctures are made with alcohol, the acetic acid in the vinegar draws out the valuable lobeline in lobelia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggie jokes that she smells like a salad when she uses it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But she uses it.<\/p>\n

Today’s penny is a 2012, the first year that I gifted my sisters with Lobelia tincture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My sisters and I long ago stopped buying each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas. I think we all hate the process of shopping for presents because, when you live far apart, it’s a guessing game\u00a0with too\u00a0many wrong answers. There’s one gift that my sisters will accept any time of the year, though. It’s always … read more Big brown jug<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[52,220,498,930,929,654,867],"class_list":["post-7835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tress","tag-52","tag-booger-hollow","tag-flower","tag-herbal","tag-lobelia","tag-medicine","tag-plant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7835"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7867,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835\/revisions\/7867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}